Ben Altman

  • Introduction
  • About/Contact
  • NEW
    • I Own This Stolen Land
  • INTRACTABLE HISTORIES
    • The More That Is Taken Away
    • Site/Sight
    • Seeing Memorials
    • Guantanámo Basement
    • Which Side Are You On
  • INVISIBLE HISTORIES
    • The Empty Centre
    • An Expatriate's Views
  • PLACE AND TIME
    • Memory Mechanism
    • Portraits/Interviews

The Empty Centre

My practice centers around challenges and burdens imposed by history. In 2017, during my first extended visit to Britain in several decades, I saw my land of origin with foreign eyes and also with a native’s concern. As the country and its leaders wrestled with the absurdity of Brexit, the burned-out Grenfell tower stood as an indelible symbol of a social fabric shredded by bonanza capitalism, de-industrialization, and the politics of division.


The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Britain's Ocean City, Plymouth

The brittle glitz of provincial British city-centres, pretentious and socially bereft, seems to factor into and at the same time image these discontents. After WW2, bomb damage was used as a pretext to replace organic communities with destinations: roads, parking structures, office blocks, and shopping-centres. At night the emptiness of these developments registers clearly. I photographed areas where this process has played out in seventeen cities.

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Cultural Quarter 6 Min, Liverpool

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Delivery Area B, Birmingham

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Zebedee's Yard, Kingston Upon Hull

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Orwell River Cruises, Ipswich

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Clothed On With Chastity, Coventry

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Toys 'R' Us, Norwich

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Unisex Toilets, Norwich

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

East Anglian Bangladeshi Mosque And Community Centre, Norwich

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Pig and Whistle, Norwich

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Wall of the Medieval City, Great Yarmouth

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

We're Getting an Outlet, Kingston Upon Hull

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Paradise Square, Sheffield

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

It Is An Offence, Manchester

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Keep Your Bike Safe, Sheffield

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

The Empty Centre, Bristol

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Manchester Crown Court, Manchester

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

2 Paradise Square/Action Antifasciste, Liverpool

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Pavilions, Plymouth

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Albion Place, Southampton

The Empty Centre. (c) 2017 Ben Altman. All Rights Reserved

Western Esplanade, Southampton